D.B. Newton

 The Manhunters

(A Jim Bannister Western)

by

D.B. Newton

Jim Bannister had ridden too long with a noose at his back to trust any man carrying a rifle.

Branded a murderer for a killing he didn’t commit, Bannister has a twelve-thousand-dollar bounty on his head and half the territory hunting him down. So when a hard-eyed posse surrounds him on the desert trail, he figures his luck has finally run out.

But the posse isn’t after Bannister—not yet.

They’re hunting another fugitive, and after shooting his horse and stripping him of his gun, they force Bannister to lead them through the badlands. Trapped among desperate men spoiling for blood, Bannister soon realizes the hunt is turning ugly. Tempers are short, nerves are raw, and more than one rider seems ready to hang somebody first and ask questions later.

Worse still, it’s only a matter of time before someone recognizes the most wanted man in the territory.

In a land where justice comes from the barrel of a gun, Jim Bannister will need every ounce of grit and fast thinking just to stay alive.

Still on the run with a price on his head, Bannister blunders into a posse hell‑bent on handing out vigilante justice. The deputy leading them is barely holding the reins, especially with a bullet in his leg, courtesy of Bannister, after they mistook him for the man they were hunting.

Then there’s the fugitive’s wife, determined to get her husband back alive. Before long the whole affair tangles into a dangerous mess, leaving Bannister fighting to keep his true identity hidden, not just to save himself, but to protect the very man the posse wants to hang.

It’s a well‑crafted story that kept me hooked and the pages turning. The tense, mob‑justice atmosphere strongly echoes the 1940s Henry Fonda film The Ox‑Bow Incident. 5/5